Brigadier General John Lubas
Deputy Commander, 101st Airborne Division
John W. Lubas was born in January 1975 in Princeton, New Jersey. He earned an undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University where he was a member of the Army ROTC. He also holds a Master of Science in Defense Analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School and a Master of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College.
He worked his way up through the ranks of the Army from being a Rifle Platoon Leader, to an aide-de-camp, and an executive officer in an infantry division. He served as the Adjutant Assistant Operations Officer and C Company Commander in the 25th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington. He was later deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
He commanded the 2nd Battalion, 402nd Infantry Regiment at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, deploying again to Afghanistan. He would deploy several more times, each one as a commander of a brigade. He deployed to Thailand in support of Pacific Pathways. Lubas served as the Executive Officer to the Secretary of the Army in 2020-2021.
He presently serves as the Deputy Commander for Operations of the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army.
In the News…
The U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division has been deployed to Europe for the first time in almost 80 years amid increasing tension between Russia and the American-led NATO military alliance. The light infantry unit, nicknamed the “Screaming Eagles,” is trained to deploy on any battlefield in the world within hours, ready to fight.
Journalists joined the division’s Deputy Commander, Brigadier General John Lubas, and Colonel Edwin Matthaidess, Commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, on a Black Hawk helicopter for the hour-long ride to the very edge of NATO territory — only around three miles from Romania’s border with Ukraine.
From the moment Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, his forces have advanced northward from the Crimean Peninsula, a Ukrainian region that Moscow illegally seized control of in 2014.
For more than seven months, Russian troops have tried to push along the Black Sea coast into the Kherson region, aiming to capture the key Ukrainian port cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa. The intent is to cut off all Ukrainian access to the sea, leaving the country and its military forces landlocked.
That threat, so close to NATO territory in Romania, is why one of America’s most elite air assault divisions has been sent in, along with some heavy equipment.
“We’re ready to defend every inch of NATO soil,” Brigadier General Lubas said. “We bring a unique capability, from our air assault capability… We’re a light infantry force, but again, we bring that mobility with us, for our aircraft and air assaults.”
